Preparing a USB stick using a network installer CD for Debian Squeeze

It can not be easier!

To install Debian GNU/Linux from network using a USB stick, download an installer image from here, from here if you need some non-free firmware or from here for the freshest version available.

Insert your usb stick and identify the device using dmesg.

dmesg

.

..

...

[3848496.714205] usb 3-2: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 4
[3848496.847464] usb 3-2: New USB device found, idVendor=03f0, idProduct=5307
[3848496.847468] usb 3-2: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
[3848496.847472] usb 3-2: Product: v165w
[3848496.847475] usb 3-2: Manufacturer: HP
[3848496.847478] usb 3-2: SerialNumber: 00000000000064
[3848496.847595] usb 3-2: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
[3848497.230156] Initializing USB Mass Storage driver...
[3848497.230383] scsi8 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices
[3848497.230523] usb-storage: device found at 4
[3848497.230527] usb-storage: waiting for device to settle before scanning
[3848497.230541] usbcore: registered new interface driver usb-storage
[3848497.230548] USB Mass Storage support registered.
[3848502.230522] usb-storage: device scan complete
[3848502.231119] scsi 8:0:0:0: Direct-Access     hp       v165w            0.00 PQ: 0 ANSI: 2
[3848502.233229] sd 8:0:0:0: [sdh] 7892040 512-byte logical blocks: (4.04 GB/3.76 GiB)
[3848502.233720] sd 8:0:0:0: [sdh] Write Protect is off
[3848502.233724] sd 8:0:0:0: [sdh] Mode Sense: 00 00 00 00
[3848502.233728] sd 8:0:0:0: [sdh] Assuming drive cache: write through
[3848502.236846] sd 8:0:0:0: [sdh] Assuming drive cache: write through
[3848502.236851]  sdh:
[3848502.906878] sd 8:0:0:0: [sdh] Assuming drive cache: write through
[3848502.906884] sd 8:0:0:0: [sdh] Attached SCSI removable disk

So, in my case the device is /dev/sdh:

cat firmware-6.0.4-amd64-netinst.iso > /dev/sdh
sync

That's it, just boot from the USB stick and enjoy!

Installing Debian GNU/Linux 6 from network using a USB flash drive and HP firmware for HP DL380 G7

This is the easiest way to do the job (of course, it is not a new procedure but I need to register it).

This Debian webpage shows us the propietary firmware available and this webpage shows how to prepare you flash drive to install Debian GNU/Linux 6 in your server!

The procedure

First, download the image from the Debian's repository with propietary firmware.

Second, download the image to format the flash drive from here, in my case amd64 for the HP DL380 G7.

Third, prepare your flash drive in other Linux machine. Let /dev/sdX be the place where your flash drive is mounted.

zcat boot.img.gz > /dev/sdX
mkdir -p /mnt/pendrive
mount /dev/sdX /mnt/pendrive
cp firmware-6.0.2.1-amd64-netinst.iso /mnt/pendrive
umount /mnt/pendrive

Fourth, boot your server with the flash drive inserted to install the system from network. The firmware for the network card will be available (plus some others).

Enjoy!